The present invention is directed toward a destainer for slab gels and more specifically toward a destainer which does not disturb the separated protein fractions.
The destaining of acrylimide gels is essential to complete the analysis of proteins which have been separated by electrophoresis. The ionic components of a protein mixture are in an acrylimide gel having a sheetlike configuration. The ionic component separation is not visible to the eye until the gel sheet has been stained and fixed with an appropriate stain. The stain permeates the entire gel rendering it a dense opaque color and the surplus stain, that is all stain which is not held by the ionic bands, must be removed before the bands themselves become visible. Destaining may be implemented electrophoretically by passing direct current through the gel or by diffusion wherein the gel is bathed in a recirculating washing liquid. Electrophoretic destaining runs the risk of imposing band shifts and production of artifacts and requires constant operator attention to the process. Consequently a destaining apparatus and method is needed which does not require constant operator attention and which does not impose band shift within the slab gels.
The diffusion method requires that the stain particles carried away from the gel be absorbed before the liquid is recirculated past the gel to remove remaining stain particles.